This edition of Window on the World gives a selection of the many civil society groups working on sexuality as a positive dimension of development.
International Network of Sex Work Projects
The Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP) was formed in 1991 as an informal alliance of sex workers and organizations that provide services to sex workers. NSWP is a legally constituted international organization for promoting sex workers' health and human rights. With member organizations in more than 40 countries, the Network develops partnerships with technical support agencies to work on independently financed projects.
International Lesbian and Gay Association
The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Association is a worldwide network of national and local groups dedicated to achieving equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people everywhere. Founded in 1978, it now has more than 600 member organizations, spread among 90 countries.
Behind the Mask
Behind the Mask is a communication initiative around LGBTI rights and affairs in Africa. The organization considers information and communication technology (ICT) and independent journalistic activism as its main tools. By way of publishing a website magazine the organization gives voice to African LGBTI communities and provides a platform for exchange and debate for LGBTI groups, activists, individuals and allies. Behind the Mask is based in South Africa.
Meem Lebanon
www.meemgroup.org/structure.php
Meem is a community of and for LBTQ women in Lebanon. Its goal is to create a safe space in Lebanon where lesbians can meet, talk, discuss issues, share experiences and work on improving their lives and themselves. Meem Lebanon also works on providing support services for lesbians all over the Arab world, and welcomes inquiries from anyone, regardless of gender, sexuality and geography.
The Peruvian Transgender Museum
http://www.ids.ac.uk/index.cfm?objectId=87E12652-A5D3-2ADD-90CDDA061CD7E425
The Travesti Museum project is a travelling museum that brings together inspiring and affirming images and stories that question contemporary prejudices and misconceptions about transgender Peruvians. It was produced by Giuseppe Campuzano with the support of the Institute of Development Studies, UK.
The Pleasure Project
The Pleasure Project is an educational initiative that promotes safer sex that feels good. While most safer sex and HIV prevention programmes are negative and disease-focused, The Pleasure Project is different as it takes a positive, liberating and sexy approach to safer sex. It provides innovative training, consultancy, research and publications to sexual health trainers and counsellors, NGOs and others who want to take a more sex-positive approach to their work. The Pleasure Project is an initiative of Taking Action for Sexual Health (TASH).
Nirantar
Nirantar works towards empowering women through education by enabling access to information, promoting literacy and engendering education processes. It achieves this through direct field interventions, creating educational resources, research and advocacy, and training. Actively involved with the women's movement and other democratic rights movements, Nirantar brings concerns central to these movements into its educational work. Nirantar was set up in 1993, has offices in New Delhi and in three districts of Uttar Pradesh.
Africa Regional Sexuality Resource Centre
The Africa Regional Sexuality Resource Centre (ARSRC), established in 2003, is part of a Ford Foundation initiative, 'Global Dialogue of Sexual Health and Well Being' aimed at giving visibility, depth and legitimacy to the field of sexuality. The goal of the ARSRC is to promote more informed and affirming public dialogue on human sexuality and to contribute to positive changes in the emerging field of sexuality in Africa, by creating mechanisms for learning at the regional level. Activities under the initiative will focus on four of the most populous countries in Africa: Egypt (North Africa), Kenya (East Africa), Nigeria (West Africa) and South Africa (Southern Africa).
Mulabi – Espacio Latinoamericano de Sexualidades y Derechos
Mulabi is an NGO that links activists from different nationalities, ethnicities, gender and sexual identities. It works on sexuality issues from a Latin American perspective, promoting the empowerment of people discriminated against because of their sexuality. Mulabi aims to contribute to a world where sexuality is linked to pleasure and diversity and where any kind of sexual violence and coercion is condemned.
Sexuality Policy Watch
Sexuality Policy Watch (SPW) is a global forum composed of researchers and activists from a wide range of countries and regions of the world. Inspired by local and international initiatives, the SPW's mandate is twofold: to contribute to sexuality-related global policy debates through strategic policy-oriented research and analysis projects, and to promote more effective linkages between local, regional and global initiatives. The SPW was constituted in 2002 and it is based in Brazil.
Bint el Nas
Bint el Nas is a website designed to serve the needs and interests of women who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer (including female-to-male and male-to-female trans people in any state of transition), and who are identified ethnically or culturally with the Arab world, regardless of where they live. 'Bint el Nas' is an Arabic phrase that literally translates to 'Daughter of the People'.
Safra Project
The Safra Project is a London-based resource project working on issues relating to lesbian, bisexual and/or transgender women who identify as Muslim religiously and/or culturally (Muslim LBT women). The Safra Project was set up in October 2001 by and for Muslim LBT women to address the combination of prejudices based on sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, race, culture and immigration status that they experience. The Safra Project is not a faith group and aims towards inclusiveness and diversity.
The Feminist Sexual Ethics Project
www.brandeis.edu/projects/fse/about/about-index.html
The Feminist Sexual Ethics Project is a research project hosted by the Brandeis University, USA. It aims to explore the links between sexuality and religion, in particular the impact of slavery in countering sexual ethics that is based on the full human dignity of all persons. The project envisions an ethic of sexuality rooted in freedom, mutuality, consent, responsibility and female (as well as male) pleasure.
Women for Women's Human Rights
Formed in 1993, Women for Women's Human Rights is an organization that promotes women's human rights in Turkey. The group works with both the grassroots and policymakers to reform the Turkish penal code to promote gender equality. The group also runs a programme that provides training for women and girls on legal rights, democracy, violence, economic rights, gender-sensitive parenting, reproductive rights and sexuality. It has published several books and illustrative pamphlets on reproductive rights and sexuality in Muslim societies that are widely used by other human rights educators.
The Coalition for Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies
Founded in 2001, the Coalition for Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies (CSBR) is an international solidarity network of organizations, researchers and academics working to promote sexual, bodily and reproductive rights as human rights in Muslim societies. CSBR includes members from Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Morocco, Pakistan, Palestine, the Philippines, Tunisia, Turkey and Yemen. CSBR has played a pivotal role in terms of advocacy, activism and research on sexual and bodily health and rights in the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia.
The Gender Centre for Research and Training
The Gender Centre for Research and Training (GCRT) was founded in Karthoum, Sudan in 1997. For over a decade the GCRT has been working to foster broad debate on women's rights to equality and active citizenship by documenting and speaking out about women's oppression. In a country affected by decades of conflict, the Gender Centre is contributing to a new perspective on peace by bringing together women from different tribes, ethnicities and regions to claim their central role in promoting and implementing the peace process. In particular, the GCRT works to raise awareness about sexual violence against women and engages with policymakers to promote women's rights.
Women Living Under Muslim Laws
Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) is an international solidarity network that provides information, support and a collective space for women whose lives are shaped, conditioned or governed by laws and customs said to derive from Islam. For more than two decades WLUML has linked individual women and organizations. It now extends to more than 70 countries ranging from South Africa to Uzbekistan, Senegal to Indonesia and Brazil to France. The network aims to strengthen women's individual and collective struggles for equality and their rights, especially in Muslim contexts. WLUML's current focus is on the three themes of fundamentalisms, militarization and sexuality.
Compiled by Laura Fano
